Arthur Kade Profile

The responsibility of raising Kade fell on the shoulders of his elderly immigrant maternal grandmother, with whom he lived in a tiny apartment in the “Russian projects” of Northeast Philadelphia. Kade was an angry youth who frequently mocked other kids and provoked fistfights, to deflect, he now realizes, his own insecurities. His grandmother was his only stabilizing force: “My grandmother was the love of my life, the only real love I’ve ever known.” After she had a mastectomy for breast cancer and could no longer sleep in her bed, Kade spent four years sleeping on a couch beside her couch, developing scoliosis in the process. And when she died suddenly from a heart attack in 1998, he felt devastated, and profoundly alone. “Actually, I considered suicide,” he says. “I don’t think seriously, but I talked about it.”

Kade is disarmingly self-aware about the long-term emotional and psychological toll his childhood — especially his father’s absence — had on him: “It created a lot of insecurities, a lot of needing to be the center of attention, a lot of not understanding my impact on people and what I was saying and how I was acting.” The manifestations were far-reaching. Even the job he took in the financial world — the lifestyle he built — was, he realizes now, born of a desire to “get my father’s attention — like, Hey, notice me!” But, Kade says, despite his material success, the person he was projecting was not really him.

It took eight years of weekly psychotherapy for Kade to fully come to terms with his father. Finally, two years ago, over Passover dinner at Café Michelangelo, Kade confronted him. “Here I am making x amount of dollars,” Kade told him, “and I’m not happy. And I’m not happy because you weren’t there for me.” During a four-hour, tear-filled conversation, his father explained that he’d treated him the way he did because he’d always believed Kade was able to take care of himself. As part of their amends, Kade confided to his father his lifelong dream to become an actor, including his plans for “The Journey.” His father agreed to be supportive. Their relationship is better than ever before. And having obtained some sort of long-desired closure, Arthur Kadyshes was finally free to become the man he truly believed he was: Arthur Kade.

I ask Kade if the vitriol of the comments on his site has gotten to him, if he feels misunderstood in some way. “It all comes with the territory” is his answer. Still, he acknowledges that some have been “particularly hurtful” — so much so that he’s started to reconsider some aspects of his physicality: not only his skin, but also his nose, which was corrected surgically years ago and which he’s always loved and considered “Adonis-like” but is now beginning to think “maybe is too big.” He’s also become more conscious of his lisp, which he’s committed to working on.

“Regardless of what you think of me, would you have the balls to do what I’m doing?” he asks his detractors. “Would you walk away from a six-figure career during the worst recession of our lifetime to go pursue something that you’re passionate about, to put it all out there for the world to see, and to take the abuse I’m taking?”

AND SO THE $64,000 question: Can he act?

Recently, I accompanied him to a workshop his agent — Mary Anne Claro — had set up in her cramped second-floor office at Broad and Passyunk. Ten of Claro’s aspiring actors had been invited to participate in a commercial workshop with Philadelphia husband-and-wife casting agents Sam and Susan Gish. The auditionees were a disparate group, including a middle-aged female doctor, two overzealous 14-year-old girls (archetypical stage kids who, in heavy acting makeup, looked far older), a massive 50-something Italian guy from South Jersey (with a shaved head and lots of gold jewelry), and a large, bald black man (with a thick beard and an intense face).

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Terry

Ladies, run for your lives, lock up your daughters, and pray to God that you remain untouched by Arthur Kade.

Kade

Lock up your daughters?? Please. This greasy slimeball couldn't buy sex with a female. And why would he, when he gets it all day for free from boys?

The Great Kade CoasterUp and down the hill it goesRock bottom it ends.

LRegion

Great Stuff!

Jack

But overall, it seems he is a guy who put his life on hold to pursue a dream. Me? I want to chuck it all and play tennis for a living but at 55, well it's not happening.Who knows, stranger things have happened. The celebrity obsessed world we live in needs new celebrities to feed the machine. There are dozens of people out there who can't act yet go on to be famous (all graduates of the Lee Majors School of Acting)Good luck on your "Journey" Arthur I hope you make it.

Kade is

Yes, Arthur, as Jack said, good luck on your Journey. Here's to hoping it leads in front of a SEPTA bus. Douchebag.

gross gross gross

nasty, nasty, deranged, pathetic. This "man" is an insult to evolution. His views on women make me ill. This is a sad story.

Mark

why is every one bashing this gay porn actor ? You are all a bunch of homophobes

Le Cosmonaut

Philly, you've sealed the deal that guarantees I and my money will never come to your diseased little town while this [feminine hygiene product] still breathes air. Shame on your rag for giving this moron column space. Ironically, the city that gave birth to this nation is complicit in its moral and intellectual death. Nice job, you cheesesteak drooling idiots.

PapaKades

Hi everybody!A new portal to abuse Kade opens.Happy Times.

Excalibur

Philly, listen up: You will all want to meet Arthur Kade now, and might run into him around town. A word of advice for you – look for the man with enormous shoulders. His nose is large too, but the sheer enormity of his shoulders defines his presence, whether in a bar, in the park, or just sitting in his favorite eatery and pseudo-office, Cosi.

PapaKadesSweatyMitts

Wait till I get you home Artie! Its the hammer and sycle for you!

Frank

http://arthurkade.com/2009/04/20/greed-is-good/For those of you new to Arthur Kade, I'm sure you are all wondering if he's any good at acting. The answer is NO! Watch the videos linked above to see him perform the "Greed is Good" speech from the movie Wall Street. Grab a trashcan while you're at it, you'll need it, believe me!

Excalibur

For those of you new to Arthur Kade, I'm sure you are all wondering if he's any good at acting. The answer is NO! Watch the videos linked above to see him perform the "Greed is Good" speech from the movie Wall Street. Grab a trashcan while you're at it, you'll need it, believe me!http://arthurkade.com/2009/04/20/greed-is-good/

Hes

I figured Arthur was "that guy" who hung with the cool kids but was always on the periphery and not "one of them". His friends (the male ones at least) are pretty hot and seem to have successful careers. Then there's Arthur. Always wanted to be accepted, not even accepted by his parents, picked on in school, only person that loved him (and tried, unsuccessfully, to teach him to respect people/treat them with dignity) dies. He "fixes things" with daddy (who's got BIG issues), gets friends, a decent place, a nightlife, and creates this delusion that he thinks the whole world will admire and cheer onto success. Instead of acting like a human with feelings people could relate to, or at least not want to wound, he advertises this figment of his imagination as being his real life. And he gets the fame and attention he so desires… for being a loser that thousands of people assault with the meanest words imaginable.I despise Arthur Kade. But when I think of that abandoned, picked

Hes

on, dorky kid with the pube fro and big nose, desperate for acceptance and for someone to love him…well, that shit makes me sad.

He’s not who he portrays on his blog – he exaggerates himself and his exploits for effect. That so many people around the world take him so seriously and want to wish him harm is beyond me. Shit, I think he’s correct with most of the stuff he writes – I just put it down on a blog for people to read.I hope he makes it: stranger things have happened, no? If he doesn’t, he’ll probably just re-start his financial planning career and this will all be a footnote in his life. But a very narcissistic, self-absorbed, widely-disseminated one at that.

Marty

(1) don't worry about your nose.The world is full of ski jumps. Don't be another one.(2) take singing lessons, seriously. I don't want to sing you say.So what. It will teach you how to breath and how to speak from your diaphragm. That alone will help you lose the "Philly Inflection" (3)spend a day a week and become someone you know. Walk like them, talk like them and get every nuance down pat.Choose someone different every week.

Mark

Based on the comments on his site, one of the factors fanning the flames is that he's presented a mission statement in which he declares that he wants to lead a "genuine" life and become an actor. Meanwhile, he reports on a life filled with with inane thoughts about superficial things, boasting about how much he parties, etc. He has no credibility. If he was auditioning for plays instead of trying to become infamous, it would be another story altogether.

It seems that he feels entitled to become famous, just because that what he wants. He makes outlandish claims about people constantly complimenting his looks, style, attitude, etc. In his videos, he speaks in monotone, is inarticulate, dresses badly, carries a kid's backpack, and doesn't actually appear to be very good looking. He speaks of his fans and all the attention he receives, when of the 200 or so comments his site receives daily, 99% percent are critical with most being downright vitriolic. The guy just comes off as a total joke.

MaGGIE

its because of posers like this, along with his friends GN Kang, Marissa Rosen, etc. etc. They believe that success is not the result of hard work, dedication and honing your craft: it is the result of partying, seeing and being seen, fake boobs and fake lives. Arthur Kade is the King of fakeness and gives the genuine actors, artists and "celebrities" of Philadelphia a bad name.

Loser Recruiter

"Kade’s blog went, practically overnight, from a few dozen readers to, according to him, hundreds of thousands." The key phrase here is ACCORDING TO HIM. The real number is 6,300 or so, 6,000 of which are from Arthur himself.

John "The Snake"

Loser Recruiter – You are good to post this information. Arthur is obviously confusing site hits with individual viewers. There's no chance that hundreds of thousands of people are reading his blog. It might be individual page hits, which could very well be true, because no doubt people are refreshing the site constantly to see the latest comments. If hundreds of thousands of people were really reading his site, the comments section would reflect that: there's never been much more than 200 comments on any post, and most are likely from the same dozen or so people posting under different names. Nice try Arthur, but nobody believes a single thing you say.

Artie

This guy is a complete joke and will realize that he's an epic failure.

Claire

Wow, I'm aghast at the nerve of this guy. Eight years of weekly psychotherapy? Really? Looks like it did nothing but turn him into a complete psycho!

His site doesn't generate that much traffic at all – according to Alexa he only reaches 0.0014% of internet traffic, 0.000061% of all page views, 33.3% of all visits only execute 1 page turn and spend an average of 6 minutes on the site. Not the internet sensation he thinks he is… http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/arthurkade.com

George

What Arthur Kade fails to realize, is that to 99.9% of the world he looks like a mid-30s man, with features reminiscent of something that was dragged out of a swamp. The enormous bloated shoulders… the swollen nose, the horrid acne, the chapped lips that look like scales on the side of a swamp trout, the legs that look like deflated fajita meat, the fingers that look like they were chewed by piranha, and the hair that looks like moss caught in a shrimping net.

P.D.

In Philly, a city of crumb-snatcher, this self-abuser will be welcome. Who in all of Philly is doing anything as entertaining as this cretin? Nobody. More's the pity.

Why Mr. Platt?

Why would Philly Mag give Arthur Kade a page of type? Is he that interesting? He is all that is wrong with this city and society today and by this article he believes you have glorified him. Philly Mag is no better than Arthur Kade! I am sorry that your editors and publishers have to consider this journalism.

Mick

Great article. Here's Arthur's problem. He's just an average guy (by every standard) who doesn't stand out in a crowd. Because of his blog, he is getting attention, notoriety and special treatment. This WILL fade, after a few months. I mean, even American Idol winners lose steam after a while and that's the #1 show in the USA. Arthur isn't going to know what to do with himself once the attention fades. This is all cute and funny now, but what's going to happen once the blogging stops? He'll be a 30 year-old with adult acne, a lisp, a backpack, no job and sleeping on someone’s smelly couch. A few words for you Arthur: BACK UP PLAN.

Michele

As a local, I enjoy Philly Mag & read all the articles – including this one. Sure I thought a lot of what I read was disturbing, and as a girl am disgusted by the way he apparently treats women *as objects*, but honestly it's all just very sad …then to go online, hearing stories about the feedback the article is getting… & this too is just as disturbing & sad! I have never commented on anything before but I was blown away by people's responses. I just don't understand who you people are to pass such judgment? I bet more than half the people talking trash & wishing him death have never even met him! Might he very well be a loser? sure…maybe, I don't know him. But it's just sad to see that people can have so much hate & anger over something so dumb. Let's get mad about the other, more important things going on in the world & leave this guy to his dream. Success or no success.

Brutus

Yeah, it’s impossible to feel bad for this numnuts. Only a complete a-hole would create a website about what a huge celebrity he is and how he’s the best actor since Lawrence f-ing Olivier, calls himself a “Philly A-lister”, talks about women like they’re not human, lies and says he’s slept with the most beautiful women in the world, says he lives “like people do in 3rd world countries” because he sleeps on a couch instead of in a bed and goes out to clubs every night, eats at the f-ing Continental every night, takes 1000 pictures of himself every day, refuses to admit to everyone that he loves men even though we all know it already… I mean, that’s just the short list. He deserves all the ridicule that we can dish out!

mark

I have been in the elevator with this guy on many occasions. He talks on his cell-phone way to loud, like everyone in Conshohocken wants to hear him talk about some hot girl who didnt shave correctly. Furthermore this tard is "poor". Maybe not financially, but "just a poor person". oh yeah, he is a tool too.

John

How can you seriously wonder if this guy is a waste of space? For months he has had kind people actually try and talk him down off of his insane ego trip, only to bask in the attention of people calling him a douchebag more times a day than most people get in their lives. This guy is hopeless and sad, you people should all be ashamed at laughing at the dancing monkey. You wouldn't let your downs syndrome kid out on the internet with a webcam to laugh at them, and this is exactly the same.

Cyclone

If you have to tell people you are famous, you're probably not. If you have to tell people how cool you are, you're probably not. It is ludicrous how this guy refers to himself as a "household name" and claims to be known "worldwide."What gives him proof of this? A few thousand very skewed hits to his blog, because the same people are viewing it over and over? He is doing little more than grossly overcalculating some brief, low-level Internet notoriety and pretending that he is all of these things. A "household name…" Please. Where? Nobody on a mainstream level has any idea who this guy is: no national magazine modelling, no national or international press coverage. No speaking parts in any films. Only been an extra. Not a single person that matters in the movie industry will ever know about him. It's truly sad to witness such dilussion; but I'm along for the ride because I will enjoy few things as much as watching this blow up and end badly, at which point I will laugh more tha

joe

I don't buy this schtick at all. But this is a pretty fascinating media project!

Erin

Thanks to Dan Lee for quoting my Cosi experience in his article. I'll be using that for my own personal profile, proving that I'm published. Ha!

Rudy

I went to the same northeast schools as Arthur growing up, and while we were never really friends, we were friendly enough. One bizarre thing I've discovered while reading his blog (and it's also briefly mentioned in this article) is Arthur's claims that he was some kind of tough guy or bully growing up. In fact, the opposite was closer to the truth. I think I remember him mentioning at the time that he took karate classes, but so did a lot of suburban and northeast Philly kids. Taking lessons at a Tae Kwon Do chain school never equaled "badass" on the streets or in the playground. Though Arthur was very much the smack talker, he often seemed to lie about the strangest things, usually involving expensive clothes that he owned yet never seemed to wear to school. We all saw him for the insecure, overcompensating kid he was. He was, and still remains, a strange dude — though harmless. I wish him the best of luck.

Hater

How do you say douche in Russian. I say we start a petition to have him deported.

Claire

Wow Philadelphia Magazine, you should be SO PROUD of yourselves. You've basically given publicity and magazine space to a fame-seeking, narcissistic, sexist, misogynistic, jerk who in no way whatsoever represents our great city. It is a travesty to have read about this person in an otherwise great magazine. His blog is a disgusting series of tall-tales meant to elevate him to some sort of personal glory. It's a real shame this magazine had to feature someone like this.

Chris

This guy is such a complete d-bag. How can someone be so utterly delusional to believe he has a chance to be a Hollywood actor? Do you know how many people could have been fed with the money this wanker has thrown away on a retarded dream. Please Arthur, stop shaming the city and go away.

M

People seem to be treating this as if it is for real. It is satire & brilliantly done. Hype him up. It says more about ourselves and our celebrity obsessed culture than it does about him

sarah

I dont uderstand why this guy thinks hes so amazing. He is just as if not more annoying than Heidi and Spencer on the Hills. I see him out all the time and hes not even good looking. I don't know why he thinks he will ever be a famous actor. No one in the acting world will take this fool seriously. He so annoying and needs to get a real job and life. Go away!!!!

Ty

Tucker Max has been doing this for years.And he's a helluva lot funnier

Dark

…peed in a horse once

DarkSock

Arthur Kade peed in a horse once

Jennifer

I still gotta admire him going after the dream, in a way.That said, yeah, I'm glad he doesn't live in my town, 'cause he'd call me a 1.

Stacie

I LOVE Philadelphia magazine and always thought that "it" people were featured in this magazine. Now I realize, Phillymag has become lazy just as every other publication losing money due to the influx of traffic on the internet has. Instead of paying these lazy "writers" to write about controversial people, why not pay them to write controversial articles about topics they themselves "create." Reporting on this type of "train wreck" doesn't seem like journalism at all. Dan P. Lee should start penning beach books like Jennifer Weiner and parlay them into film options of really poor movies.

Doc

Sadly, most of us have known an “Arthur” in our lives. I remember a few from jr. high and high school. You had no reason to make fun of them – if you were a nice person – but they just existed on the fringe of the outcast crowd. They tried and tried and tried to be accepted by the cool kids. They weren’t accepted by the non-cool kids. They had their parents buy them the clothes, the shoes, the look, but the personality just never evened out to match it.

I think Arthur was like this years ago, and has spent the better part of a decade improving himself with the goal of finally being a “cool kid.” He’s just never really figured out exactly who he is, because his entire life is being something he’s not. He’s still an outcast, still an aimless oaf constantly looking to impress everyone around him, and doing so in the most annoying of ways. He takes the pictures with random girls to create a catalog of “proof” that he is someone. By accumulating the photos and posting them for others to

Doc

see, he’s validating his “cool” status. But it’s all fake, and everyone can see it.

His lies, oh his lies! They are endless, they are obvious, they are ridiculous. Like the one in the video showing his class photo on the wall at his relative’s house. How he said that many people in the NYC modeling industry told him it was the “best photo they’ve ever seen.” If you saw it, it looked like something from the 40s. Horribly unmodern and just not in style at all. Not even attractive looking.

The braggadocio is amusing and all, but it’s just a facade that hides a miserable, constantly-looking-for-acceptance boy who never quite got the grasp of being humble and honest.

Chris

Arthur Kade is living out the American Dream. An American who says otherwise is only adding perfect irony to a wonderful story, correction, Journey.

I am hotter than this guy LMAO!!!!!!!! This is funny so funny this guy is a TOOL ppl can you Tool Academy! Quick get the guys from Tool Academy to take this one down XD XD And as far as him fucking women…that’s what his blow up doll and hand are for, I wouldn’t touch this man with a ten foot pole then again I’m not normally attracted to white boys anyways!

Radda Radda

The American dream is to accomplish something, not to pretend you have. He isn’t living it. He couch surfs, parties every night with the same group of people, is an actor who hasn’t acted, has no regard for women as humans, is deluded about his worth, is overwhelmingly despised or pitied, is laughed at and sneered at…that is NOT the dream most Americans have!!

Sean

This guy is the biggest piece of shit I have ever encountered. Talk about a delusional jerk off whos entitlement is off the charts. I want to light his face on fire and put it out with a shovel.

Toni

I like Arthur Kade… the more I read of him and what he says the smarter I feel… what an oxygen thief LMAO

FISFALL

You make case histories in my text book on abnormal psychology come alive.